San Jose St faces Bowling Green in Military Bowl

For the third consecutive year — which accounts for 60 percent of the lifespan of this particular event — the Military Bowl had coaching news between the selection date and the game.

Ralph Friedgen was fired by Maryland in 2010, but he was allowed to coach the game and ended his Terrapins career with a big win over East Carolina.

Last year, Tim Beckman left Toledo for Illinois, leaving replacement Matt Campbell to lead a one-point victory over Air Force.

This year, it’s even more complicated.

Having rebuilt San Jose State (10-2), Mike MacIntyre left for Colorado after the Spartans accepted the bid that will have them facing Bowling Green (8-4) on Thursday at RFK Stadium. Defensive coordinator Kent Baer was selected as the interim coach for the game and wanted the job full-time, but he wasn’t even granted an interview.

Instead, San Diego’s Ron Caragher was hired, and Baer is going to follow MacIntyre to Colorado.

So, talk about awkward: Caragher has already started to set up shop with the Spartans during Baer’s final days at the school. Caragher watched practices back in California last week and traveled with the team to the nation’s capital as an observer.

“In some ways, it can be very confusing,” said Baer, who also had an interim bowl gig with Notre Dame in 2004. “Sometimes it’s confusing to me, to be honest with you. But once we get out to practice and we’re handling our business in meetings, it’s this group of coaches and this group of players that’s been here all year. That’s how we’re handling it. It’s going to be his football team after this, but not ‘til.”

The shake-up has jarred the players just as they were hoping to put an exclamation point on perhaps the best season in school history. The No. 24 Spartans are playing in a bowl for the first time since 2006, are in the AP rankings for the first time since 1975, and will be trying to win 11 games in a season for the first time since 1940.

That’s quite a feat considering that San Jose State was 1-12 just two years ago during MacIntyre’s first season. Baer has been around longer, having joined the Spartans staff in 2008.

“I’ve been here with a group of young men, a couple of coaches, that have seen some really tough times and seen this thing turn around,” Baer said. “Really the goal is — I don’t know if it’s a parting gift to the university or the kids, or just saying, ‘Look, we’ve been in this together. Let’s finish this together. This is still the 2012 football team. This is the last time we’ll be together.’ We’re very focused on trying to be the best team ever in San Jose State history. I’m not doing it for anybody but this group of men and coaches.”

Bowling Green has a different kind of mission in mind. The Falcons also rebuilt their program in a hurry — rebounding from 2-10 two years ago — and are one of seven Mid-American Conference teams in the bowls.

Yet the MAC is off to a rough start: 0-2 so far, both blowouts.

“We’d like to finish with a statement in the bowl games,” coach Dave Clawson said. “It’s going to be a challenge. I think we’re underdogs in every one of the seven games, but I think that’s a little bit of the nature of the MAC, that we’re always fighting uphill. This year we had a very good year in the field and we’d love nothing more than to finish with a pretty strong performance in the bowl season.

“But, at the end of the day, Bowling Green only has control over one of those games, and all we can control is how we play in the Military Bowl.”